PetroChina in billion dollar Singapore deal

June 22, 2009

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By , BEIJING, Jun 22 – Chinese oil giant PetroChina announced on Monday that it had completed the acquisition of nearly half of refiner Singapore Petroleum Company (SPC) in a deal worth more than one billion dollars.

PetroChina, the listed unit of the nation\’s biggest oil and gas producer, has bought 45.51 percent of SPC\’s issued share capital, the Chinese company said in a statement filed with the Shanghai stock exchange.

PetroChina said last month it had agreed to buy the stake for 1.02 billion dollars from Keppel Oil and Gas Services, part of Singapore-based conglomerate Keppel Corp.

It will make a mandatory cash offer for the rest of the Singaporean refiner next month, it added.

SPC, a regional energy company with interests in petroleum refining and marketing, owns a 50-percent stake in one of Singapore\’s three major petroleum refiners.

It is also engaged in oil and gas exploration, with production bases in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Australia.

The deal is the latest high-profile overseas bid by China, which sits on 1.9 trillion dollars in foreign exchange reserves, to fuel its economy, now the world\’s third-largest.